First Discovery of Trojan Asteroid Saturn

The United States Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA launched a special mission to take a closer look at the Trojan. This mission is called Lucy, which left Earth on October 16, 2021.

Launching the official NASA website on Tuesday (10/15/2024), Lucy took off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, with the main mission of studying the Trojan asteroid. Lucy will be on the same path as the planet Jupiter, before she gets close to the Trojan. Lucy plans to be on a mission for 12 years.

After receiving an acceleration boost from Earth’s gravity, this probe is scheduled to reach its first destination, the asteroid Donald Johanson, in April 2025. In 2027, Lucy will reach the first group of Trojan asteroids in front of Jupiter (Euybates and Queta, Polymele , Leucus and Orus).

After examining the five asteroids, Lucy will come close to Earth again in 2031. This aims to get help from the acceleration of gravity towards the second group of Trojans behind Jupiter (Patroclus and Manoetius ), which is expected to arrive in 2033.

In the next 12 years, Lucy will be the space explorer to visit the largest asteroids. Lucy’s launch will be Lucy’s first and last moments on Earth.

Like most space probes that have been launched, Lucy does not plan to return to Earth. After completing its primary mission, Lucy will orbit between two Trojan asteroid clouds once every six years.

Before Lucy was launched, Harold Levison and his team had worked out that Lucy would not hit Earth or pollute other planets and natural satellites that might be inhabited by life. the next 100 thousand years.

In the future, if people don’t bring Lucy back as a memory. This spacecraft will lose orbital stability, and will be ejected by Jupiter.

Lucy could have gone towards the Sun or out of the Milky Way solar system.

(Tiffany)